{"id":2677901,"date":"2026-10-07T10:34:01","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T14:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nike-ceos-memo-to-employees-is-soul-crushing-to-woke-activists-who-captured-company-for-a-decade\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T10:40:31","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T14:40:31","slug":"nike-ceos-memo-to-employees-is-soul-crushing-to-woke-activists-who-captured-company-for-a-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nike-ceos-memo-to-employees-is-soul-crushing-to-woke-activists-who-captured-company-for-a-decade\/","title":{"rendered":"Nike CEO&#8217;s Memo to Employees Is Soul-Crushing to Woke Activists Who Captured Company for a Decade"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnike-ceos-memo-to-employees-is-soul-crushing-to-woke-activists-who-captured-company-for-a-decade%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2677901&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Nike&#8217;s CEO recently acknowledged that the company&#8217;s focus has shifted back to emphasizing sports, after a period where branding efforts centered around social and political themes. This shift comes amid a meaningful decline in nike\u2019s sales and stock value, which have been negatively impacted by the company&#8217;s previous reliance on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bud-light-may-now-have-a-lawsuit-on-its-hands-after-shareholder-values-tank\/\" title=\"Bud Light faces lawsuit as shareholder values drop.\">woke marketing campaigns<\/a>, such as the Colin Kaepernick endorsement. Historically, Nike had a reputation for advertising featuring athletes and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-samantha-bee-tells-republicans-to-stop-transphobic-bills-and-mind-their-own-fing-business\/\" title=\"WATCH: Samantha Bee Tells Republicans To \u2018Stop Transphobic\u2019 Bills And \u2018Mind Their Own F***ing Business\u2019\">athletic performance<\/a>, but in recent years, it became associated with social activism, leading to mixed reactions and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sec-requests-bigger-budget-to-tackle-wild-west-of-the-crypto-markets\/\" title=\"SEC seeks increased budget to regulate volatile crypto markets.\">market challenges<\/a>. The company&#8217;s stock has dropped over 80% from its 2021 highs, and it has lost market share globally. critics argue that the company&#8217;s previous embrace of woke branding, including political stances and social justice messages, contributed to its recent struggles. The CEO&#8217;s memo indicates a conscious return to core sports marketing,acknowledging that the company&#8217;s prior focus on social issues may have alienated some consumers and investors. the episode illustrates how corporate branding strategies, especially those linked to social activism, can substantially impact financial performance and brand perception.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><br \/>\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\"><br \/>\n<?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><html><body><\/p>\n<section> \t\t\t\t<script>console.log(\"ad slot (AC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC1)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC2)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC3)\")<\/script><script>console.log(\"ad slot (IC4)\")<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Nike\u2019s CEO has come to a startling conclusion about his company: It turns out that an athletic-wear corporation sells athletic wear, not politics.<\/p>\n<p>In an employee memo reported this week, Elliott Hill admitted that the company had been spending most of 2026 putting \u201csport at the center of everything we do,\u201d as the company\u2019s  price drops and the brand loses market .<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.com\/news\/article-16184559\/Nike-woke-stock-price-CEO.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.K. Daily Mail\u2019s<\/a> Sophia Baum asked the central question:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause if sport is now back at the center of Nike, investors could reasonably ask: what was at the center before?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The question kind of answers itself. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/nike-stock-marks-years-declines-leaves-sp-100-index-years-woke-marketing-stunts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">company\u2019s recent fortunes<\/a> have followed the rise and fall of wokeness, with both sales and the company\u2019s s dropping precipitously.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s often difficult to know what product Nike is actually selling. While the company\u2019s advertising and identity has always tracked left of center \u2014 it famously featured an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wbur.org\/onlyagame\/2018\/10\/12\/nike-colin-kaepernick-ric-munoz\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HIV-positive runner<\/a> in \u00a0a commercial in the 1990s, along with Charles Barkley\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=e2lseCPPCP4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">I Am Not a Role Model<\/a>\u201d spots \u2014 those ads still featured athletes.<\/p>\n<p>But a decade ago, Nike decided to throw its lot in with a former NFL player whose whole identity was <em>not<\/em> playing in the NFL, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/colin-kaepernick-38-says-waits-nfl-team-call-still-train-5-days-week\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Colin Kaepernick<\/a>. In fact, he became the face of the company, despite his real gig being activism. You don\u2019t need sneakers to be an activist, and it helps if you can credibly claim to be anti-capitalist in that crowd.<\/p>\n<p>It worked, for a while. However, Nike\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/finance.yahoo.com\/quote\/NKE\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">stock<\/a> is down over 80 percent from its 2021 highs as of Wednesday morning, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indmoney.com\/blog\/us-stocks\/nike-stock-s-and-p-100-exit\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">INDmoney<\/a>, an investment blog. This means it was removed from the S&#038;P 100, which also means some forced selling from index funds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe change says that Nike is no longer representative of America\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >100-company mega-cap tier<\/a>,\u201d the blog reported. \u201cIt does not say that the company has become uninvestable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/athletics\/2026\/10\/04\/go-woke-go-broke-the-fall-of-nike\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.K. Telegraph<\/a> noted, the company\u2019s  of the footwear market worldwide has gone down from 29.2 percent in 2022 to 23.4 in 2025 percent.<\/p>\n<p>What happened? Well, it wasn\u2019t just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/watch-smithsonian-director-flounders-house-hearing-republican-exposes-rampant-wokeness\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the wokeness<\/a>. There was the company\u2019s weak sales in China against domestic brands there, along with a disastrous decision to pursue direct-to-consumer sales at home \u2014 which led to less shelf space in major stores.<\/p>\n<p>Also, at its stock high, Nike was trading at roughly 50 times earnings at over $179. It now trades at roughly half that number, even as earnings more than halved. Investors simply don\u2019t feel it\u2019s worth that massive premium.<\/p>\n<p>But make no mistake: The wokeness had something to do with it.<\/p>\n<p>By distributing a memo explaining that a sports footwear company even needed to return to thinking about sports, even the CEO is admitting that the company had been behaving like it didn\u2019t really care about the product it was selling. It showed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLots of things definitely changed because of social media,\u201d one Nike insider told the Telegraph, referring to the fact that it was unprepared for the backlash it would face for the Kaepernick campaign.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe company backed those sentiments at that particular time, believing that what we\u2019re trying to do was right. Hindsight\u2019s a great thing. So if you ask those same guys if they would do it again, I don\u2019t know if they\u2019ll give a different answer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBelieve in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.\u201d That was the slogan for the Kaepernick campaign, remember? Well, it turns out, that meant sacrificing an entire company\u2019s market position. But at least they believed \u2014 or at least pretended to believe \u2014 in something amorphous and unthinking and woke.<\/p>\n<p>This has to be a soul-crushing thing for everyone who truly believed in this suicide mission to destroy an entire company.<\/p>\n<p>However, it\u2019s also a sign that wokeness <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wokeness-lives-nba-team-fires-new-play-play-man-racist-social-media-posts-teens\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">never really dies<\/a>, it just morphs or gets abandoned temporarily while an organization tries to rebrand itself.<\/p>\n<p>Whether it\u2019s Nike or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/democrats-woke-land-acknowledgement-goes-embarrassingly-wrong-didnt-rehearse\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Democrats<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/harvard-amends-lawsuit-claims-trump-admin-vendetta-university\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">American universities<\/a>, the makeup of the brand remains the same. It\u2019s just gone underground a little bit.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f7f7f7; color: #171717; display: flex;font-size: 16px;font-weight: 600;line-height: 1.5;margin: 24px 0;padding: 18px 20px 18px 30px;text-align: left;\">\n<div style=\"align-self: stretch;border-left: 3px solid #171717;flex-shrink: 0;padding-left: 20px;\"><\/div>\n<p><a style=\"text-decoration: none;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/\">Choose The Western Journal as your preferred source on Google and never miss reporting that defends truth, protects freedom, and advances Western civilization<\/a><\/div>\n<p style=\"border: 1px solid #f5f5f5; padding: 16px;\">Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/advertise-us\/?wj_source=article\">Advertise Today<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\"> \t\t\t \t<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-submit-correction inner-content\">\n<div class=\"correction-form\">\n<form style=\"display: none;\">\n<div class=\"sc-name-field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* Name<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"sc--field\"> \t\t\t\t\t\t<label>* <\/label> \t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" name=\"\" required> \t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<label>* Message<\/label> \t\t\t\t\t<br \/> \t\t\t\t\t<textarea name=\"message\" required><\/textarea> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"required-message\" style=\"display: none; padding-bottom: 15px;\">* All fields are required.<\/div>\n<p> \t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" onclick=\"event.preventDefault(); firefly_sc();\"> \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-sc-confirm\" style=\"display: none;\">Success!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> \t\t<script> \t\t\tfunction firefly_sc() { \t\t\t\tif( typeof window.captchaPublicKey == typeof undefined ){ \t\t\t\t\tconsole.error('window.captchaPublicKey is not defined'); \t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\tgrecaptcha.execute( window.captchaPublicKey, { action: 'submit_correction' } ).then( function( token ) { \t\t\t\t\tvar opts = { \t\t\t\t\t\taction:    'firefly_sc_submit', \t\t\t\t\t\tname:      document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"name\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\t:     document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tmessage:   document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"message\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tpost_id:   firefly_post_id, \t\t\t\t\t\tcap_token: token \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tvar inputs = [ 'name', '', 'message' ];  \t\t\t\t\tfor( var i = 0; i < inputs.length; i++ ) if( ! 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